


Fortune's Favor

by AutumnLeavesCoffeeDreams



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Circus, Gen, Karasuno, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 05:57:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17719427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnLeavesCoffeeDreams/pseuds/AutumnLeavesCoffeeDreams
Summary: "Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself."~ P.T. Barnum





	Fortune's Favor

_"Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself."_

_~ P.T. Barnum_

 ~ ✧~ ✧~ ✧~ ✧~ ✧~ ✧~ ✧~ ✧~

  _What on earth have I gotten myself into?!_

That was the thought that kept cycling through Yachi’s mind as Shimizu, a woman she had met only yesterday, lead her across the fairgrounds. A massive tent adorned with black and orange stripes sat in the very center, standing out like a sore thumb for miles. It was the first thing that had piqued Yachi’s interest when the circus had arrived in town; she had watched the workers rig the Big Top from start to finish, all the while dreaming what it would be like to perform inside.

And then she met Shimizu.

The raven-haired woman had approached Yachi after an aerial silks routine she performed for the local festival. With a gleam in her eyes, she had exclaimed, “That was exquisite! You’re just what the Karasuno Circus needs!”

“Eh?!” Yachi had replied intelligently.

Shimizu proceed to offer Yachi not only a position on their national tour, but also her very own aerial silks act. Caught up in the circus manager’s enthusiasm, Yachi reflexively agreed to join the show. And now here she was, walking toward the boldly decorated tent quivering in anxiety.

_This is crazy, I’m just a street performer! There’s no way I could join a professional circus! What about my roommate? What about my friends and my family? What if I’m not good enough? What if I’m so bad, they kick me off the tour in some town hundreds of miles away and I don’t know how to get back home?!_

Yachi’s inner turmoil came to a screeching halt as Shimizu began to speak.

“To be honest, I’m really grateful you decided to join us. ”Tucking a loose strand of her behind her ear, Shimizu continued. “The circus hit a rough patch a few years ago and we were so close to bankruptcy. We kept losing our best acts to the larger circuses that offered them better pay. It was rather disheartening.”

“There are circuses bigger that this?!” Yachi cried out in disbelief.

Shimizu laughed softly. “Yes, but right now we’re the biggest circus that still uses the Big Top. The others– I guess you could consider them rivals – all abandoned tents in favor of performing in arenas and stadiums. They make more money that way.”

“But the Big Top is an iconic symbol of the circus,” Yachi commented passionately. “Plus, it looks so… cool!”

Although Yachi was embarrassed at her lame choice of vocabulary, Shimizu nodded. “You’re absolutely right, and that’s why I love managing the Karasuno Circus. At the end of the day, they don’t care about making tons of money. Would we all love to get paid more? Sure, but knowing we’re bringing happiness to others by doing something we love is priceless.”

Yachi nodded, her eyes beginning to shine with passion. “I feel the same way! Performing on the silks doesn’t exactly pay well so I work another job to take care of the bills, but I can’t imagine doing anything else. When I’m on the silks, anything seems possible. I feel like… like I can fly.”

Peeling back the tent flap for Yachi to walk through, Shimizu turned to her and smiled. “Then I think you’ll fit in just fine.”

As Yachi entered the Big Top, she could barely hold back a gasp.The tent itself was huge, but the setup inside made the environment seem larger than life. Massive rigs and beams seemed as tall as skyscrapers, carrying various apparatuses Yachi had heard of but never seen.

“Is… is that a Cyr wheel?!” cried Yachi, pointing in the direction of young silver-haired man spinning in circles inside what appeared to be a giant hoop.

“You are correct,” answered Shimizu, watching him with subtle admiration. “Sugawara is one of the acrobats, but the Cyr wheel is his specialty.”

“I can see why,” Yachi remarked. “He’s so graceful!”

They continued to watch Sugawara practice, both becoming more engrossed the longer they watched. That is, until a soft-sounding voice calling out snapped them out of their trance. “Watch out!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Yachi spotted a rather large juggling pin headed straight for her. Squeezing her eyes shut and tensing her body, Yachi instinctively braced for impact… yet the pain never came.

“Working on your juggling again, Yamaguchi?” came Shimizu’s calm tone.

Yachi opened her eyes and gaped upon seeing the circus manager holding the pin with one hand mere inches away from her face.

_Th-that almost hit me! And she caught it?!_

“Yeah, sorry about that…” A tall lanky boy rushed over and took the pin from Shimuzu, his cheeks flushed from embarrassment. “I’ve been practicing really hard, but juggling and I don’t go very well together.”

“You’ve already gotten better since you joined Karasuno,” Shimizu pointed out. “Oh, forgive my rudeness. Yachi, this is Tadashi Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi, this is our newest act: Hitoka Yachi. She specializes in aerial silks.”

“Aerial silks? That’s awesome!” Yamaguchi beamed. “No one here has specialized on that apparatus yet, though there was that one time Hinata tried it and got himself tangled up. It took three of us to get him out of the knot.”

“Yamaguchi here focuses on equilibrium skills,” Shimizu explained to Yachi. “Tightrope, unicycle, stilts… that’s all him and Tsukishima. Speaking of which –”

Yamaguchi chuckled. “Say no more. I’ll go get him for you.”

After sucking in a huge breath, Yamaguchi turned toward a blonde-haired man who was on a tightrope about thirty feet away and bellowed,“TSUKIIIII! COME MEET THE NEWBIE!”

Yachi balked at the boy’s actions. Why would he yell at someone on a tightrope?!

Much to her surprise, the blond had not faltered. Instead, he moved ever so slightly to shoot Yamaguchi a scathing glare. Seeing Yachi’s appalled expression, Yamaguchi smiled sheepishly. “We’ve been friends for along time. He’s used to it. However, it doesn’t look like he’s going to come over any time soon.”

“That’s all right, Daichi and Asahi are heading over anyways.”

“Is this the new recruit you’ve been eager to show off, Shimizu?” Two taller men came into Yachi’s view. Both had a strong presence, causing the poor girl’s anxiety to skyrocket. The one who had just spoken had shorter hair and an authoritative posture, though he was smiling kindly at Yachi.

“I’m Daichi Sawamura,” he greeted. “I take it you’re Hitoka Yachi, the new aerialist?”

“Y-yes, sir!” Yachi stammered.

Daichi chuckled. “You don’t have to be so formal around us. At Karasuno, we’re practically a family, complete with sibling squabbles and all. Just the other day Tanaka and I had an argument on who was better on the German wheel. After a little contest, we came to the conclusion that it was me.”

Elbowing the long-haired man next to him in the ribs, Daichi said, “And this guy here is Asahi Azumane. He’s an acrobat, like me, but he’s also an aerialist.”

“The straps are my favorite,” Asahi explained with a soft smile. Despite his intimidating appearance, his tone was far gentler than Yachi had assumed.

_Gah, there I go again judging people before getting to know them!!!_

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both!” Yachi said with an odd mixture of nervousness and enthusiasm.

“SHIMIZU!”

“Ah…” was the said woman’s response.

“OUR LOVELY MANAGER HAS RETURNED TO US!” roared a pair of booming voices. Yachi yelped in surprise as two more men – one taller with a shaved head and the other short with spiky hair – leaped above Daichi and Asahi’s towering forms with their arms spread out, ready to embrace Shimizu.

Without uttering a single word, Shimizu gracefully stepped to the side, causing the two newcomers to belly flop onto the hard ground with a synchronized “Oof!”

“And these two idiots are Tanaka and Nishinoya,” informed Daichi as Asahi grabbed them by their shirt collars to stand them upright.

“Shimizu is so cold-hearted,” drawled the boy with the shaved head, Tanaka. “I love it.”

“Oh, who’s this?” questioned Nishinoya, the spiky-haired guy.

“H-hi! I’m Hitoka Yachi, the new aerialist!” Yachi bowed again. “I’m eager to work with you all!”

Tanaka and Nishinoya stared at the girl for a moment before their cheeks flushed red. “She’s so cute,” they murmured together.

Now it was Yachi’s turn to blush.

“These two are our little daredevils on top of being acrobats,” explained Daichi. “Every crazy stunt you can think of, they’ve either done it or are working on it.”

“Sword swallowing!” shouted Nishinoya.

“Fire breathing!” belted Tanaka.

“Human cannonball!”

“Knife throwing!”

“There’s nothing we can’t do because we are… THE DOUBLE DARE-DEVILS!” Nishinoya and Tanaka shouted simultaneously, striking a dramatic pose.

“How long did it take them to rehearse that?” Asahi wondered out loud.

“Too long,” muttered Shimizu. “Anyway, where is Ennoshita and the others?”

“They’re right in the middle of a closed rehearsal with Ringmaster Ukai,” said Yamaguchi. “I think they're adding something new to their clown act and Ukai has to come up with some new dialogue.”

“So that just leaves Hinata and Kageyama then…” Shimizu’s gaze traveled upwards, suddenly smiling. “Ah, of course. There they are.”

Yachi and the others followed Shimizu’s line of vision until they were staring at two trapeze rigs. Hanging by his knees from one of the bars was a dark-haired boy, is brows furrowed in concentration. Dangling from his arms was another boy who was significantly shorter and stood out with his bright red hair. As the distance of the swing increased, the two of them rocked their bodies in sync, matching the rhythm of the trapeze. Then with a mighty heave, the dark-haired boy flung the redhead out of his hands, who in return pulled in his limbs tightly to his body for a tuck.

In that moment, Yachi’s breath hitched in her throat; she was mesmerized by not only the velocity and power behind the toss, but the effortlessness in which they moved. And for a split second, she could have sworn the redhead had wings.

_He can actually fly._

"Those are our baby crows for you," Daichi commented softly.

Every shred of doubt that had been gnawing away at Yachi’s mind over the past day had vanished. Maybe her skills could use improvement, and maybe it would take some time to get accustomed to the circus life…

… but God, she never wanted to be a part of something more than she did now.

Yachi’s gaze shifted to meet Shimizu's. Her mouth opened to say the words she’d been reluctant to speak all day, though she found that she was still speechless. With a knowing look, Shimizu squeezed Yachi’s shoulder and whispered…

“Welcome to Karasuno.”

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot came from a poll that I had posted on the Haikyuu! amino on here asking what AU I should write. The Circus AU tied with a Fairy Tale AU so that one will be written next.
> 
> Some of the terminology in this fanfic may not be 100% accurate because although I have only had basic circus training, I never performed in one. My apologies in advance.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


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